CanadianQuaffer

Recipes 

Hey everyone,

I need to get a bit more colour into an ESB recipe I came up with using Beersmith and I was wondering if either Black malt or Chocolate malt was better than the other for that task?

I'll be adding 4 oz of said malt to the mash which otherwise contains 9 lbs Maris Otter, 8 oz Crystal and 4 oz Wheat malt.

Thanks!

Nick

Haputanlas

Recipes 

De-Bittered black or Carafa Special III

Both are dehusked and will impart the color without as much of the roast character.

That would be my suggestion.

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CanadianQuaffer

Recipes 

OK, I'll have a look for that for future batches, but for now I am stuck with either using Black or Chocolate as that's all I have at hand and brew night is tomorrow night.

Sooooo black or chocolate?

TimBrewz

Recipes 

Well, dark malts and ESB are not a common thing, but if you can't get the Carafa, add the black malt as a late addition to the mash-about 15 minutes before sparging, you will get a lot of color with very little roastiness.
This is a common technique for Schwarzbier.
4oz seems like a lot for a pale beer like ESB.
Do you not have any darker crystal malts?

Good luck,

Tim

CanadianQuaffer

Recipes 

I dunno...I used Beersmith for the recipe and without the chocolate/black malt the colour was down by the left of the colour meter, near teh yellow, so I wanted to get it more in the mid range. I kept adding black/chocolate malt until I got the colour inthe middle.

BigEd

Recipes 

Four ounces is way too much IMO. That's going to skew the beer towards a brownish tinge. An ounce or so will do the trick, assuming you already have some crystal malt in the bill, making the color similar to Fuller's ESB with a deep copper/amber tone. Chocolate would be my choice between the two or as was mentioned earlier German Carafa malt.

Golddiggie

Recipes 

8oz of WHAT crystal malt?? 20L? 60L? 120L??

You can also do a little kettle caramelization to get the color a bit darker, IF you really want to. IMO, that's better than adding black malt. A small hit of chocolate MIGHT be ok, but I do agree it's out of place in an ESB.

Also, what's the reason for adding wheat malt?

Also, the color indicated by BeerSmith could be more than a bit lighter than you'll actually get for the batch.

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On Tap: MO SMaSH, English Brown Ale, Dark Cream Ale
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CanadianQuaffer

Recipes 

The Crystal is 60L and the wheat is for head retention.

I thought the chocolat/black malt would be ok...I've heard that Double Dragon Welsh Ale (a best bitter) has a touch of chocolate malt in it.

Franc103

Recipes 

A brewer at Otter Brewery in the UK told me they use a fraction of a percent of chocolate malt to hit color targets. For my premium bitter, I used one ounce chocolate to get a lovely 12-13 srm.

The first batch had two ounces. That was too much, and the sucker bordered on brown.

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Golddiggie

Recipes 

Assuming you're making a 5 gallon batch (amount into primary) you should get a SRM of about 7.0 with the MO and .5# of Crystal 60L... IMO, you shouldn't need wheat malt for head retention. IF you REALLY want more/better head, add a small amount of carapils/carafoam (like 1/4 to 1/2 pound) to the recipe.

Also, 'a touch of chocolate malt' could be any amount. It could be equal to 1/2oz per 5 gallon batch. Without a reference recipe (that's a proven match for the original) it's rather difficult to say.

I did a Maris Otter SMaSH 3 weeks ago, kegged it on Saturday. With 1/2# of crystal MO in the batch (55L) the color was amazing. The flavor was even better (the hydrometer sample). I can barely wait to get it carbonated and start pouring pints.
Moral of that story is to not always focus on what SRM the software indicates for the recipe.

Oh, and which version of BeerSmith are you running?? I'm on the very latest release (fully updated). I've noticed that they've improved the formulas that run it over the updates (as well as with v2.0)... If you're running an older version, or yours doesn't have the latest update/patch applied, I'd update it.

__________________
Hopping Tango Brewery

"Do you wanna get hiiiigh?" - Towelie

On Tap: MO SMaSH, English Brown Ale, Dark Cream Ale
Waiting/Carbonating: MO SMaSH, Caramel Cream Ale
Primaries
K1:
K2: Mocha Porter
K3:
K4:
K5:
Aging: Wee Honey MkII, mead and maple wine, mocha madness II, Old Ale (on medium toast cherry wood)
On Deck: Lickah (English IPA)
Mead [bottled]:Oaked Wildflower Traditional, Mocha Madness, Wildflower Traditional, Blackberry Melomel